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Nicky and Haruka’s Wedding Went Well

We had 27 adults and three children, two cats and a dog at the wedding here at the house on Saturday and it all went swimmingly. The weather was unusually nice for April; it was like a day in June. We’d planned on a garden wedding with no Plan B so that was very lucky.

I spent about ten days preparing as I made all of the food, so made a list of what to buy and what to make, and then frozen dishes as they were made. The menu was coconut curried beef, honey/soy/garlic chicken, salmon, roasted potatoes, Mexican bean and rice salad, Greek Salad and buns.

I was happy when it was all over though, as four separate guests stayed at the house overnight, so prepping the food and cleaning for the wedding was one task, and then getting four guest beds ready was another. As this proved to me, I really could run a B and B here. Not that I want to, but I could.

Much easier and with less involvement than prepping for a wedding has been the sale of my perennials. I ran an ad on Castanet, which is free, and have sold a ton of plants. Who knew? Most people seem to like the idea of mature plants that’ll sprout into an instant garden when planted.

The reason I had so many to sell was due to my desire to revamp the lower vegetable garden. On one of the garden tours I took years ago I was enchanted by a garden that incorporated flowers and vegetables. However, as it turns out, it doesn’t work. The perennials grew so large I had very little room left for any vegetables at all.

Beverly brought me a beautiful piece of stained glass she made. I hung it in my living room window and it adds so much to this Bohemian-style house. I love stuff like that. She also gave a lovely piece to the kids as a wedding gift.

Nicky and Haruka went to Vancouver for a couple of days, but then returned smartly for Nicky to start his new job as a manager at Telus. She’ll fly back to Japan next week, and then continue working there until she receives her permanent residency. Hopefully that’s going to go a lot faster than it did with Jan and Luke.

So now I have two wonderful Asian daughters-in-law who’ll both be here in Kelowna, so far from their own families. Should there be any grandchildren, I’ll be the sole gramma here for them! I was far too attached to my family when I was those women’s ages to contemplate such a thing.

During my first marriage in Prince George, Stanley got an exchange opportunity to Rhode Island. At first I thought why would we go so far from home? I was already far from home living in Prince George. But we went, and it was a great experience.

And the world’s a much smaller place now, too. For instance James, the best man, held his phone so that Haruka’s mom could observe the ceremony from Japan. When Luke and Jan were apart they Skyped 24 hours a day. She’d be asleep, but Skype was on.

It’s not like it used to be, when phone calls were too expensive and letters took weeks to arrive. Then you could say my God, that’s a brave person to move so far from home. Nonetheless, I feel a huge responsibility to ensure happiness for these gals.